February 5, 2010

Merkin has a long Q & A with Brooks Boyer. Here’s what Boyer had to say on this year’s commercials:

I think this year’s commercials, if they go off the way we want them to go off, are a little more grinderish. Because you are going with a tagline of “It’s Black or White,” all based on the honesty of the team and a work ethic, I don’t think they are going to be as funny as they were. I think they are going to be cool, but we have some viral things planned that we think have a chance to be funny and engaging and so truthful.

It’s kind of, “Life isn’t always black and white, but our baseball is.” Playing on something like that is going to make it engaging.

and on the budget/payroll:

… Hopefully, we get a little bit better weather in April and May, and hopefully we have a little bit better team in September than we did last year. That certainly carries a lot of weight. How we budgeted, we feel very confident, as we sit here right now, we feel confident we will be able to support a payroll that’s north of $100 million.

Seriously, a Jones/Kotsay platoon is the first option? Keep in mind that a league-average hitter is a replacement level DH. While Jones might still have his uses as a bench/platoon player, CHONE projects him as a below average hitter (.324 wOBA, -7/150 in context-neutral linear weights). If you think that’s bad, Kotsay projects at .297 wOBA, -16/150 context-neutral. That’s not useful at any of the positions Kotsay backs up at this point, much less DH. Even if efficiently platooned, that’s ugly. Heck, Mike Jacobs (-6) would be an upgrade, and would also keep the Chicago/Kansas City pipeline active.

They really didn’t have room for Thome? He probably adds just a few runs for the Twins, but he would be at least a one, maybe two win improvement over Jones/Kotsay. …

The Cubs want to build a stadium for Spring Training in Arizona and the plan calls for all the Cactus League teams that hold Spring Training in Arizona to “bankroll the $84 million stadium though ticket surcharges.” The Sox don’t want to do so, since they didn’t get help from the other teams when they were building their Spring Training stadium in Arizona (the Camelback ranch that opened last year).

The Diamondbacks are also opposed.

NOTE: The freeloaders tag refers to all the teams that seek public money to pay for their stadiums.

UPDATE: Sullivan: “The Cubs believe the surcharge is fair because of all the business they bring to the Cactus League.”